Chapter Four #2
“You speak of the Fairfaxes, the happy couple,” Jane said.
Lady Gresham gave the slightest of nods before continuing her tale.
“Shortly after her half-sister was wed, tragedy stuck. The younger sister’s father, the vicar, was carried off by a putrid fever; she and her mother went into mourning.
Still, the witty and besotted young captain continued to visit her, and his affection was her greatest consolation – until they had word that his regiment was to move on to a new locality.
Their parting was tender and… perhaps too romantic for your innocent ears. ”
Elizabeth coughed and nearly spat out her tea as she and Jane exchanged a look of mortification. “Growing up in the country, I have some understanding of how… nature carries on.”
“Really, Lizzy!” Lady Gresham shook her head, but her eyes betrayed what she could not say.
“The young lady’s circumstances progressed, and her condition was soon beyond concealment.
She went to her half-sister; that lady and her husband had hoped to start a proper family of their own, though they had not yet been blessed with a child.
They agreed to take the babe as their own, with the elder half-sister going so far as to contrive a false belly beneath her gowns to lend some truth to their intended deception. ”
Jane sucked in a shaky breath, casting a wary glance at Elizabeth. “And where was the clever young captain, all the while?”
“After being obliged to follow his regiment, the young captain lost his elder brother quite suddenly and thus became his father’s heir.
His father was a cruel man who demanded that he marry the heiress once intended for the elder brother, an heiress of considerable fortune and less than compelling personal charms.”
Elizabeth felt her jaw tighten and her shoulders go rigid. “Lady Amelia.”
Again, Lady Gresham gave only the barest acknowledgement.
“In a state of great despair, the soldier returned to Surrey with the intention of braving his father’s displeasure and eloping with the young lady he loved, who had promised to wait for him.
But she was not there. Instead he met with that lady’s elder half-brother, a tradesman on the rise, who did not favor the match.
He had come to the vicarage to help his twice-widowed mother finally remove to a new home, and he was in no humor to see the soldier who had trifled with his half-sister.
Unaware of her delicate condition, the tradesman discouraged the soldier and sent him away, and so the marriage to the heiress took place. ”
Elizabeth gasped. “Your first husband, my late uncle… he separated them!”
“He would not have done it if he had known the whole truth; it became one of his greatest regrets when he learned how deeply he had wounded his half-sister. This was before we were wed, or, I flatter myself, I might have intervened on her behalf. Alas, news of the soldier’s marriage reached the poor young lady, and she delivered not one but two daughters in a state of great despair.
Her half-sister’s husband resolved to confront the soldier, believing him to have acted out of greed and heartless treachery – his wife accompanied him, and that is when their carriage broke an axle on a stretch of bad road just north of London.
The lady was left alone, heartbroken and aggrieved, until her mother consented to allow her to return home – the home my late husband purchased for them.
She believed she had no choice but to keep the two fair and beautiful girls who the very image of herself, and raise them as the children of her late half-sister and brother-in-law. ”
“But they, too, were separated," Elizabeth said, a tear rolling down her cheek.
“Yes. When the young lady returned home with the baby girls, their identity was accepted in the village, for the Fairfaxes had once been loved and respected there. After about a month had passed, the soldier’s father died; free from that old tyrant’s control, he went to Surrey at once.
There was little he could do, for he was a newly married man.
But he saw the lady and the two babes, and they agreed to a compromise – they each kept one.
He vowed to make one of the girls his ward and heiress, while the other was favored by the guilt-ridden uncle in trade, and later sponsored by a former friend of Captain Fairfax, whom all the world believed was her father. ”
Lady Gresham trembled as she finished recounting this history, and dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief.
“My husband told me this story not long after we wed. He wished me to understand why he settled the sum of ten thousand pounds on you, Jane – he feared I might think he had robbed our own daughter, but I had no objections to his efforts to make right what he had mismanaged so long ago. I made my promise to reunite you before the fever took him, and after I married Sir Duncan, I took pains to become acquainted with you, Lizzy.”
“Then our meeting was no accident,” Elizabeth gasped. “It was deliberate – you knew that my father would never know you to be Mr. Gardiner’s widow.”
“Precisely. I contrived the entire encounter, and I was truly delighted with you. It seemed the perfect way to continue my annual visits with you, which have been a tradition of many years now, culminating in the natural result of you visiting me here, at last.” Lady Gresham had tears in her eyes, but she beamed at her two nieces with radiant affection.
“I would have done more for you, but for my promise to Fanny, when she learned that I knew the truth. It was many years before she forgave my poor Edward, and she accepted his financial assistance only for the sake of their mother, and of course for you, Jane.”
“Did you know that Father went to see her after Lady Amelia died?”
“No, I never knew that.” Lady Gresham leaned forward with a look of interest and motioned for Elizabeth to continue.
“It was the day that Jane went away with the Campbells. We called at a cottage on the edge of the village, and Father sent me and Mrs. Hill off to see the shops and some old friends of hers, for her late husband was also in the militia with Father. He and Miss Bates spoke alone for about an hour, and then as Mrs. Hill and I returned, we saw the Campbells’ carriage departing.
I remember seeing a girl who looked like me through the rear window.
Miss Bates was teary-eyed but spoke kindly to me when I offered her candy.
After that, we went away directly, and Father was very forlorn for many weeks. ”
“Well! I daresay he wished to finally honor his promise to her – but I suppose she would not have him! Edward and I had always wondered if there might have been anything between Fanny and Edward’s friend, the former Captain Weston, who was left with a young son when his wife died – and that young man grew up to be none other than Frank Churchill! He might have been your step-brother!”
Jane blanched, her eyes wide with horror, but she quickly recovered herself and gave Elizabeth a quelling look; her engagement to the man, it seemed, must be kept secret even from their aunt.
Lady Gresham appeared not to notice this moment of discomfort. “How curious. Perhaps when you return to Highbury, Jane, you might attempt to uncover the truth. Captain Weston worked with your Uncle Gardiner for many years.”
“I am not returning to Highbury,” Jane said sweetly.
Her curiosity about that place rising, Elizabeth gave a devilish grin. “I am.”
And now it was the sisters’ turn to edify and astonish their aunt; they told her of their scheme to exchange places.
Lady Gresham shook off the somber mien that had shrouded her normal good cheer as she told them of their tragic origins, and she listened with increasing delight to their plan to pose as one another for a few weeks before coming together at their birthday.
“And I suppose you intend to unite your parents at last – how wonderful! If I can be of any use at all, I am sure I should be glad to do Fanny a good turn.”
Elizabeth’s mouth fell agape and she turned to look at her sister with excitement. “We had not thought of that, but now that you mention it….”
“And then we could all be together,” Jane cried. “At least, until you or I wed – which is not likely to happen any time soon.”
“I can promise you both unequivocally that I have no thoughts of marriage at present – not for myself, at least. But why should I content myself with only a few short weeks of knowing my mother, when I can have her forever?”
Jane clasped both of Elizabeth’s hands in her own. “And I shall have Father, until – until I marry, someday….”
Lady Gresham eyed Jane with a look of intrigue.
“By the by, my dear – it was rather forward of him, but Mr. Frank Churchill asked me to give you this.” She produced a small, folded note from her reticule.
“His mother decided her perpetual indisposition would be more comfortable in Bath, with her nephew at her side. They departed but an hour ago.”
Jane’s shoulders slumped as she accepted the note.
Elizabeth had grown attuned to the subtlety of her sister’s expressions, and even supposed that as twins they shared some uncanny link betwixt themselves, for she felt Jane instantly lose every ounce of pleasure she might have taken from the house party.
Lady Gresham said no more about Mr. Churchill and his capricious harridan of an aunt; her brow furrowed a little when Jane confided no reason why the young man had written to her, but Elizabeth was relieved that their aunt let it pass.
“I suppose that as neither of you are ill, you may return to the manor this afternoon.”
Jane appeared not to hear this, and Elizabeth’s heart ached for her sister. “Must we? I do not mean to be rude, Aunt, but I must own to some little selfishness. I wish to keep Jane to myself a little longer, if you will permit it.”